Stuart Recce

 It's been a little while since I have posted anything, Greg going bananas with his Warhammer shit. I decided I should do something about that at least. A lot of my shit for Flames of War is already built and/or primed ready to be painted. The hard part is actually being bothered to do it. Having had a battle not too long ago that went on for a solid six hours, lasting twelve turns, I was kind of inspired to paint something up after. One of those happened to be my Stuart Recce tanks. I quite like how they play and have them specifically for my wautistic Army I want to build up, so let's get into that...

As stated, I have a desire to build up a very specific British Armoured list that's tailored to a Historical unit - that being the 44 Royal Tank Regiment. Having had a relative serve with that unit and having documentation, pictures and other interesting bits of information on them, it all drives my wautism hard and is somewhat personal to me.

The unit itself fought from Operation. Crusader in N.Africa under 1st Army Tank Brigade supporting the Indian Troops at the Sidi Fortifications and the New Zealanders over at Belhamed fighting in the famous Matlida Mk.II's. Thereafter they were refitted with the new Valentine Tanks for the fighting at Gazala known as the "Cauldron". Here along with 50 Infantry Division they were nearly completely encircled and annihilated, but they managed to pull out to fight again. They eventually were refitted with the new Sherman II's coming through for El-Alamein where they supported the Australians - these Tanks they would take with them for the rest of the war.

They refitted after El Alamein then sat out the rest of the African Campaign where they now would be detached from 1ATB and attached to 4th Armoured Brigade with whom they would serve with for the rest of the war. This constituted of 44 RTR, 4 Royal Horse Artillery (mobile) and 'B' Company, Kings Royal Rifle Corps. They served mainly in support of 11th Armoured Division, but also acted independently if and when needed.

They took part in the fighting in Sicily and Italy before being pulled from the line to rest, refit and train for Normandy. There they fought through the grueling battles around Caen against some of Germany's finest Armoured units deployed to Normandy, specifically around Hill.112. Took part in the breakout to Falaise before rushing up to Belgium where the Germans bogged an out-stretched British line. This, sadly, was where my relative was K.I.A. Having fought all this way. they then drove on through to Holland to support the 101st Airborne Division in Operation. Market Garden. Again, getting bogged down. Then being pulled from the line once more, trained up in D.D. warfare to cross the Rhine and through into the heart of Germany itself.

This is all very exciting for me as a bit of a WW2 enthusiast and allows me to build a very nice list to play for Flames of War, one that's both quite flexible and allows me to cover almost any major battle or period for Late War.

The famous Black Rats Jerboa decals for some reason are not actually supplied by Battlefront themselves, so I had to source these elsewhere at a bit of a premium. I am pretty happy with them, despite the transfer sheet itself being rather large so I learned quickly that cutting them up I have to be very precise with them so they will fit and stick to the intended model. As they are Recce, they carry the White Diamond to denote this.
As for painting them, nothing much to add out of the ordinary other than my wash coming out of the bottle quite thick and splodgy. A lot of watering down didn't help much, but I quite like the grimy look of them, as I imagine they are out scurrying around ahead of the main force behind them reporting enemy positions back to said main force - some historical pictures will follow too, because wautism...
I did decide on a metallic dry-brush this time, rather than the usual lighter tone of Green, something I feel works really well to sell the worn, well used look - although probably not carried over too well in the pictures..

I wasn't too sure what the things on the front of two of the tanks were and thought for some reason that it was a metal mesh, lol.. Turns out that it's probably a camo netting/tarp cover. Oh well.. It's metal mesh now.. Speaking of metal, the models are the old BF metal minis. Nice and heavy, but a bit wonky and wobbly.. Painting them was a bit of a pain in some areas as the paint wouldn't go into the poor molds and I wasn't going to do any more than what was absolutely necessary. But that's fine.

Digging around, I managed to track down some Historical footage of the Regiment and used this for both information and inspiration. Below is a Stuart passing through Norrey-en-Bessin, North of Cheux. On the right you can see the number 124. This denotes the seniority or position within the Brigade. 4 being Junior. Now I don't actually have this number as decals and I couldn't be fucked free-handing it, so I used the BF LW Normandy decals and put 54 in place of, which also works. As some of the decals are a little too large or the Tank molds have details on them, I decided to omit placing them on the rear of the models, instead having them only on the front.

Here's one driving along in a field.

Now the old kits contain five Tanks, but I can field no more than four, so I decided to convert one into a mini-diorama-objective marker, because why not? So here that is..

Using some of the spare Plastic Soldier Company Infantry, I decided to add them to the base to give it a little bit of life. I've assumed the Tank has come to a halt as it's out of fuel - which is why the guy on top is quickly filling her up using a Jerry Can. He was mashed up from two separate Infantry guys, but it does the job well enough for me. The other guy sat there is resting and pointing something out for his Commander to have a look at, who's already scanning in that general direction anyway. For some reason he comes with no feet, but that's ok for me. He's sunken in the mud and grass.

With this Tank, I decided not to use any decals to both save them for other Tanks I will use in my wautistic Army and to keep this as a generic obj. marker that can be used, much like the Tiger Tank one I made. And with that, I am very happy to have both completed another set of vehicles in my force and to say I have finally made something for my 44 RTR Army..

Old World Damsel.

Today while working on a fresh batch of Night Goblin Archers, I decided to rebase an old Bretonnian Damsel model I painted up some time ago. The new Warhammer edition upgrades a lot of the bases sizes, making them bigger than before. They decided upon this to help with ranking up, since a lot of their models jutted up against each other with limbs and weapons getting in the way.

So the Damsel herself is originally on a 20mm square base, and instead of treating the Bretonnian army much in the same way as my Orcs and Goblins, with adapter movement trays, I'm going to base them according to their profiles in the old world. With this, I have the opportunity to base them differently to how I usually base my green skins, and as such I've opted for a more natural and vibrant method to basing.

To start with, I use textured paint for the base itself, specifically Vallejo Brown Earth Diorama Effect. Once dry, I dry brush Citadel Dry Eldar Flesh to add some texture to the base, followed by a wash of Citadel Seraphim Sepia. The Base itself looked quite brown, and I though it would be good to add some green, but instead of doing with a wash or paint, I decided to use some old flock I still have in a tub called Woodland Scenic Blended Turf - Green Blend. Sparingly all over the base I coat it, so that the brown still shows through the gaps.

To complete the base, I pulled out some new flower tufts I bought, and added two to the front of the base, and some regular grass tufts to the back. A quick black on the rim and now she looks ready to fight off some Orcs and Goblins.

This is the start of my Bretonnia list I have planned. Knights, peasants, pegasi and even a trebuchet.

Grimgore and Da Immortulz.

 

I've managed to complete a large unit of Black Orcs along with a Black Orc Boss and Grimgore Ironhide himself, for the upcoming games of Warhammer the Old World. The models are all metal models, from back in the mid 2000s, and I've had them for over ten years now. Finally painted them, and I had a lot of fun getting them ready for the table top.

Grimgore Ironhide.

His weapon Gitsnik.

I started off by basing them with sand and throwing a smooth coat of Chaos Black Spray. I then used the Citadel Dry Necron Compound to drybrush the model entirely. This step was a quick shortcut to get the silver done on the models, as most of it is plate mail.

First step.

I then messed around with the green, settling on Vallejo Deep Green as the base coat for the flesh, but afterwards trying out various combinations of washes and contrast paints to try and get the right tone of the darker skin of the Black Orcs. In the end, I settled with a wash of Nuln Oil and a second wash of Biel Tan Green.

Experimentations.

The result felt too dark.

Reworking of the skin afterwards.

Second wash.

I then worked on separating the steel plates by making some of them black, and using Contrast Black Templar, it worked really well, and applied really easily. It is easily one of my favourite Contrast paints. Once that was done, it was time to do all the straps, horns, teeth and gold pieces with Vallejo Beige Brown. During this stage, I changed my mind with the skin and redid it to what I eventually settled on, seeing it look too dark with the black plates along side it. A bit of red to put into the character models mouth was used, but that was all that was needed until later on when I used it for the banner that would come in later on.

Dark skin and dark plates made them look too dark.

Chevron work on the armour.

The chevrons were done with Vallejo Off White and Cold White, both of which required two bases to cover well enough. Then a bit of black to help repair the lines and clean up any mistakes make. This was fairly difficult to make look neat, but I managed it enough to look good enough.

Bit of wear and tear.

Vallejo Oily Steel is used to create chipping and wear on the black plates, and to clean up any mistakes on the armour from the other colours. During this time, I also decided to mix up a small container of Dryad Bark, and I managed to figure out the formula for it the second time I made it. Dryad Bark is used to basecoat the base and is a colour I am always using. I've gone through at least 3 pots so far, and instead of buying some more, I thought I would try mixing up my own.

2 parts dark brown
1 part grey
1 part black.

During this stage, my second set of ten black orcs came in with the command models, and so had to start working on them while the first ten were still in the painting process. However this made it easier to work on the second ten, since I've managed to get the process refined well enough that I wasn't guessing anymore, and kept me interested in the paint job as I also worked on completing the first ten, trying out what needed doing on them.

More Black Orcs!

Another way I was also keeping myself motivated with the hobby was by working on some of the new movement trays I had got specifically for the old world. These movement trays are adapted for the old world, but fit the smaller bases of older editions of Warhammer. I decided that it was high time I also painted the movement trays going forward, to make the models look nicer when slotted in.

20 Orcs with two hand weapons.

Dem Feet.

New and Old.

Difference in size. They fit together too!

Big unit of Night Goblins with BSB and Shaman.

7 wide by 6 deep.

Smaller Archer unit with fanatics.

Savage Orc Boar Boyz.

Orc Boar Boyz.

It wasn't long before I was finishing off the first ten Black Orcs, and of course I forgot to take anymore pictures of it, but it wasn't much more left to go on them anyway, so I will summarise. Firstly I painted Vallejo Ivory on any of the bones and horns and teeth, and the washed them with Citadel Seraphim Sepia. This gave them all a yellowish tinge while shading them. Any of the straps and bronze was washed Agarax Earthshade. The bases were dry brushed Citadel Dry Eldar Flesh and a bit of grass was added to them, with the rim done in the usual Steel Legion Drab.

Games Day Black Orc.

Big Choppa!

Front Rank!

Second Rank!

Third Rank!

Fourth Rank!

On the march.

Something the enemy will never see!

Waaaggh!

I've still got some more models I'm planning to add to this regiment, Borgut Facebeater is an old model from around the same time these models, and I plan to use him as the unit champion. Another three models I plan to add are still in the mail, but they are the same type of models from the same time period, but they are equipped with great weapons instead of two weapons. I plan to use them in the front rank whenever I want to use them with great weapons in the game. All up it will be a large unit of twenty-four with two character models that I can use as champions depending on the loadout, and Grimgore himself as a warlord/big boss proxy for the old world, or as himself in previous editions.

Until next time!

Small Update, Bigger Teeth?

Warboss and his bodyguard.

I've been working on a large unit of black orcs this last month, and while working on them I also worked on a Night Goblin Warboss on Giant Squig. I've had this model for ages, and never used it in a single game of Warhammer, but that will soon change.

Snotling buddy.

I painted him exactly the same way as the Squig Hoppers before him, but he comes with some extras, like a shield and sword, and he has armoured greaves and boots too. This Warboss is quite well off, and in the Old World, he'll be sporting light armour and a shield along with some Troll Trousers, to give him a 3+ armour save and 5+ regeneration save. If points persist, he might even be sporting a magical weapon, but otherwise he'll be used primarily to hunt down smaller units and add some punch where needed.

Powerful legs.

His random movement will make it a gamble to use him, but with that come some trade offs, primarily being that enemies wont be able to make a charge reaction to him. At 3D6 movement, he will on average move around at 11 inches, and if lucky, can be very annoying. His skirmishing ability means he'll be far less restricted than other monstrous mounts, able to move around 360 degree around.

Knightly Goblin.

His only real downside, other than the unreliable movement, is his poor leadership. At leadership 6, he wont be passing any failed break tests if he ever needs to take them. Luckily he isn't that pricey, with him at 55 points, along with 5 points for light armour and shield, and the giant squig 25 points. 85 point melee lord on a mount is quite good. Adding the Troll Trousers for a +1 armour and 5+ regen save for 40 points makes him that much more survivable.

Charge!

I can't wait to try him in The Old World, Orcs and Goblins seem to be in a good place for this edition, and am working away at my unit of Black Orcs. They will be a large unit of 24, with 20 of them already coming along very nicely. Four more Black Orc models are in the post, 3 with great weapons, and one named character which will act as the unit champion in this edition.

Zagrot will be his name!

Until next time!